Random code
Posted on Wed Sep 1st, 2010 @ 1:35am by Jan Valentine
291 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Session 3: Fear of the Dark
Location: engineering
Jan was tired, most of the consoles that monitored the various systems on-board the Warden had either been burned or blasted to pieces in all the recent disasters and battles. After spending more than an hour getting electrocuted and stabbing his fingers over and over on pieces of metal, several of the monitors from the Merc ship were wired into the Warden's consoles, giving them an odd modern/retro fusion look, with a little Frankenstein-esque engineering.
Jan was leaning back in a new comfortable chair, going over the computer codes the ship and crew had generated in the past few hours, looking for something, anything unusual. He was more than half-way through the vintage bottle of vodka he had pilfered from the Mercs, and wasn't really focusing on the screen. That was, until something caught his eye.
"Whoa whoa, stop. Go back 30 code lines." Jan said to the console, which beeped at him several times, replaying the code lines again. A code that controlled the coolant pressure had been reprogrammed to over-pressurize long enough to cause major damage.
"Alright, who programmed it?" Jan said.
The console gave an error beep, the screen stating that the source was encrypted.
"Encrypted like hell." Jan said, sitting up and activating a large keyboard. After 10 minutes of dead-ends and false information, Jan finally managed to crack the encryption key protecting the source.
"Now then, who programmed it?" Jan said.
The console chimed, and the screen listed the terminal and time index the file was introduced into the coolant system's computer.
"I fucking knew it." Jan said, slapping the table-top.
"Walt, I found out what caused our engine failure, and you're not gonna like it. Meet me in the mess hall." Jan said on his comm.